Sales Transformation Group CEO Ryan Groth estimates that just over half of sales staff in construction and other industries are “weak” salespeople, something contractors can use to their advantage.

“If I have really good salespeople in an industry where most people are not sales-oriented and they’re multitasking, we’re automatically going to grow because the landscape is that way,” he said.

In this episode of our sales-focused video series, WC Publisher Jill Bloom chats with Groth about how contractors can transform their sales staff into elite performers that can improve their company’s closing ratio.

“Most companies do a poor job putting real sales people in a fully-focused sales role,” Groth said. “In sales, if you want to drive growth and improve your closing ratio, this is a huge path that most people do a poor job paying attention to.”

This claim is backed by data Sales Transformation Group collected on 1,700-plus sales people from roofing and other trades that show eye-opening conclusions, such as 55% of sales staff are considered “weak” salespeople. Groth explains what this label means and how contractors can help transform them into high-performing sales staff, such as delegating tasks away from sales people that belong to other positions.

“In any contracting business, sales is offense and production is defense,” Groth said.

In the first part of this series, Groth stressed the importance of knowing and improving your closing ratios.